2014 was a great year for my photography. My short trip to Colorado opened up new opportunities in scenic photography and I got some great time lapses. The spiders were abundant, and I even worked on my portraits a bit.

To start off I have to post time lapse I took near Stonewall, Colorado. I think it’s one of the coolest things I’ve done. Make sure to see it in HD, or click here to see it on YouTube.

The spiders are always out later in the year down in North Carolina. Saw a few great jumpers on a fence. I’ve had great luck with that fence over the years. All photos taken with my Canon 5dII and Mp-e 65mm lens.

Had a wonderful time at the East Coast Star party last weekend. I spent a lot of time searching for new objects, my favorite of which was NGC 891. I took a lot of photos, and got frustrated at the wobbliness of my astrophotography telescope a few times. But, I did manage to get a few good shots. I saw some spiders, too, I’ll post those shortly.

All of these photos were taken with my Canon 5dII mounted on my newt, and guided with a Celestron g5sct. I was mostly testing the ISO limits of my camera, so I didn’t go for image quality. Still trying to figure out the best settings for my gear.

This is the final set of photos from my trip to Colorado in September, 2014. I took over 6000 photos, many of those HDR and time lapses. I learned a lot about scenic photography, something I am new to, and a whole lot more about exposing properly for the milky way. This was the best vacation I’ve taken, and I can’t wait to go back.

First, another time lapse. This was taken by North Lake, a few miles north of Stonewall. The same lake, actually, where my Milky Way Time lapse was taken. I love the clouds in the distance, if you look closely you can see rain falling. Make sure you’re viewing it in HD. This spans 3 hours of photos.

This is a 6 shot HDR stack, taken from the top of Stonewall. The hike was precarious and rather dangerous, but worth it!

A few shots from North Lake, near Stonewall. Same place as the above time lapse.

During the day Sunday, I drove around quite a bit, and met this friendly horse. See the nose in the top left? Not so friendly, protective parent.